Do-Not-Resuscitate Orders for the Incompetent Patient in the Absence of Family Consent

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Advances in medical technology have a habit of raising new, and usually unexpected, ethical and legal questions. Such questions arise when patients or physicians, for a variety of reasons, defer cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) or other treatment with so-called no-code or do-not-resuscitate (DNR) orders. When all parties to the DNR order, including physicians, patient, and family, agree that it is appropriate in a given case, there is rarely controversy. However, when one party dissents from a no-code status, most commentators agree, grave moral, social, and legal questions are raised. The most troublesome issues concerning DNR orders arise when physicians and family disagree about the appropriateness of such an order in the case of a mentally incompetent patient. These episodes not only raise complex legal issues but also go to the heart of, and challenge, modern medical ethics and the relationship of doctor to patient.

This publication has 17 references indexed in Scilit: